Best Buy 2000 Annual Report Download - page 5

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3
Record Financial Performance
Fiscal 2000, ended February 26, 2000, was our most profitable year ever. Revenues for the year
reached $12.5 billion, a 24% increase over the previous year, and net earnings increased 60%,
to $347.1 million. Earnings per share on a diluted basis rose from $1.03 in fiscal 1999 to $1.63
in fiscal 2000.
We continue to focus on creating value for our shareholders. In addition to concentrating on
traditional earnings-based measures of financial performance, last year we began using an
Economic Value Added (EVA®) financial management system to measure how well we utilize the
Company’s assets in producing earnings. This past year, our EVA improved more than $100 million,
to $178 million. Chief Executive magazine ranked us 11th on their list of companies that created
the most wealth for shareholders; we were the only retailer in the top 25. Our return on equity,
another key financial performance measure, grew to more than 30%. The strength of our earnings
and efficiency with which we deployed capital enabled us to repurchase approximately $400
million of our common stock during the past year.
We have built a world-class inventory management system, turning our assets faster than any other
retailer in our sector. Our inventory turns exceeded 7 times this year, up from 4.6 just three years
ago. In the past four years, we reduced the length of time we own inventory by nearly 30 days.
This provided cash to expand our bricks-and-mortar stores and our Web site with internally
generated funds.
Strategies Successes